‘If not now, when?’: Melinda French Gates on acting without fear as a philanthropist in the Trump era

It has been two years since Melinda French Gates left behind the Gates Foundation, which she co-founded with her former husband, Bill Gates. With an estimated net worth of $19.2 billion, she now has full control over how her philanthropic resources are used for the first time in her career—no husband or cofounder to debate. “It’s very freeing,” she says. So what is she doing with that freedom? She’s showing other billionaires how to spend their money—starting with addressing a lack of funding for women’s health in the U.S. and around the globe. In mid-May, that meant sitting on a couch at a former abortion clinic in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, with an 8-month-old baby on her lap. She was listening to the story of Asia Brooks, who had a difficult first birth and suffered postpartum depression. Brooks came to this clinic, WAWC, and had a completely different—and much more positive—experience for the birth of her second child last year. The clinic had closed after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and then pivoted to provide other health services to women—reopening in a stately brick building that used to house a software company, funded by French Gates’ $5 million grant. French Gates was there to see how the clinic is incorporating mental health services to help people like Brooks, whose baby was busy playing with the multibillionaire’s notebook. Stories like Brooks’ influenced French Gates’ decision, announced today: She will put a fresh $215 million into women’s health, both in the U.S. and around the world, for a total of $600 million committed so far. Those numbers are just the start; the commitments are in a two-to-three-year “testing phase” that will focus on access to care during reproductive years, health during midlife and menopause, and mental health. With partners like the research-focused Wellcome Leap and the Menopause Society, which trains health care providers, those priorities will be applied across her firm Pivotal’s three signature levers: philanthro